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"The Student Loan Racket" - The Complete Infographic
When we looked at the latest release of consumer debt a few days ago, we spread the data into its constituent government and non-government loans. Needless to say, taking away the "government" means consumer credit has imploded. So where does all this government debt go? Two places: car financing (see previous post about retail sales surging on a spike in car sales especially subprime loans to Government Motors clients), and student loans. Below we look at the letter. As the following infographic from HealthcareAdministration.com shows, student loan debt, now at $830 billion, has surpassed credit card debt—a statement not likely to have been heard 20 years ago. Student loans, unlike any other form of debt, cannot be forgiven via bankruptcy—these loans must be repaid. Is this the next bubble to burst? Look for clues in this comprehensive infographic.
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i agree with everything you said except the "predatory loan". while the loans are stupid, these folks sign up for these things with a goofy smile on their face. I don't consider them victims, but naive and/or stupid.
I have no sympathy for the college graduates who find there are no jobs for them.
These are the same people who, all during their time as college students made every effort to avoid buying anything made in America.
When they bought a car it was always an import. The American cars were not good enough for them.
When they bought beer it was always an import such as Corona. They scorned the American beer.
When they buy wine or vodka today it is always an import. They refuse to buy American wine and vodka. American wine is not good enough for them.
They live to vilify the American worker.
Well, guess what! America doesn't have any jobs for them. Their jobs have left America.
Their jobs are NOT coming back.
Actually PBR is the beer of choice of college students.
or keystone
And they don't drink much wine - Jack Daniels or cheap vodka.
Plus most MJ is domestic now and that costs more.
Wait...so if a student can't pay back the student loan, the debt collection agency has the legal right to go after a person's paycheck and tax refund???
Holy shit.
Now that the Obamites have taken over the racket, I guess the next step is to force them into the Army or Government "service" at better repayment rates. I think they have already offered up such a plan.
Suckers are lining up for it!
Where's the line please? Do they age discrimate? I'm a bit over sixty.... but I can shoot the eye out of a squirrel at a hundred paces by gosh!
Tax refund yes, garnishing wages I believe depends upon state law--some allow that some don't.
Of course, eventually as the fees, late charges, collection costs and compounding interest doubles, triples, quadriples the loan amount and ultimately collection will be simple: deduct it from Social Security. Welcome to the new order.
Better to start at the source. Why are tuitions so expensive? That has created most of the problem here. Huge endowment funds, mega campuses, on an on.
Interest rates for these loans should be 30's +1 full stop. The idea of enslaving the masses with student loan debt that is (from the article) akin to slavery is just bullshit. Another in a long line of political moves to enrich the few at the expense of the many. The only caveat I have is that there should be some qualifying score for these loans on the SAT or comperable entrance exam. Current system is a shit heap.
These banksters are always telling us they Had No Idea that the bubble was gong to burst
BUT I'd argue the fact that right before the bubble burst they just happened to pass a law prohibiting Student Loans from being discharged in bankruptcy court offers much evience that They Knew and are only 'playing stupid' now to keep us from stringing them up.
These guys Knew the bubble was going to burst and planned according - just as vampire squid's are wont to do.
Lol, Texas, Rick Perry,"created jobs"-rip-off low to noo regulation school financing, Prisons for profit..Drlill baby drill..
Oh no! Please, boss! Don't deduct it from my social security checks! Please don't garnish that otherwise-perfectly-dependable bastion of my future financial security, which has been provided to me, at my expense, through the wisdom of the heroic leaders of our glorious past!
Morons.
I will outlive the United States of America.
Wasn't it Reggie Middleton that said No Recovery in the Housing Market when students graduate with loans bigger than the average cost of a house from only a few short years ago.
When I graduated from an Oregon state university in 1991 tuition was $495.00 per term - 3 terms a year - with that we also got decent Health Insurance.
But hell it's either tax breaks for the top .01% or an affordable education system - sorry but you can't afford both - and college students don't have high powered lobbyists to bribe our politicians - and neither do they 'run the place' in regards to wash dc.
When I went to school back in the late 70's tuition was free for veterans but we had to pay a $50 "surgical fee" every semester. I complained that I did not need any surgical care, in fact, the VA would do any surgery on me [disalbed vet]. You see, I didn't get it back then - "surgical fee" was a "free abortion" funding fee. That's why you couldn't get out of it.
After getting married, we paid as we went to put my wife through school, undergrad and graduate level at a private universtiy while making second and lower third quintile money. After getting her Masters Degree she went to work for 2 years making half of what I made with my high school diploma and determination. Today we are in the top 5% of incomes. My wife stays at home and raises our kids and we have no plans for them to waste their time or our money with "higher" education. It's a scam through and through.
I agree. I've three kids, and we've agreed that we'll help them buy a house or attend a local technical school- if they want to attend University, that's their choice, but they need to do it 100% on their own.
Student loans, a chain around the necks of the "educated" - another tool of government control. A debt bomb in you pocket makes it more likely you will keep your nose to the grindstone and not notice the system you have been enslaved within.
I'm gonna buy my freedom, master said so. The system is corrupt and so stacked in favor of the oligarchy, that even college educated folks are starting to notice.
Government by the people for the people is dead.
I am an old fart but call me a jerk or whatever. Fricking parents are all stupid too does not cut it with me. Brainwashed does not cut it with me. I told my kids to study hard, I will be involved with their education and get a fricking scholorship or your not going to college. I did my best to see they thought critically and challenged the teachers. Fricking pretty simple. Guess what it worked they both graduated debt free. So tired of all this victim shit. But as I look around I can understand some the posts here. My youngest is 34 and when I talk to some of my friends who have young kids. Stupid shits have kids now entering college and they are 60 and whining about the cost. They think I am fricking crazy and mean because I made mine knuckle down and learn and I helped them.
The real problem is parents are involved in their own thing and kids do their thing and all they do is text to communicate or watch TV together. Parenting these days consists of making sure the child is doing shit we could not do as parents instead of some tough love and guidance. My questions to myself is what the fuck are they doing parenting if they do not know squat about a contract themselves. No wonder the country is screwed. Blame eveyone but yourself for the problems. Excluding the theft from our government.
Challenge your children and the crap the local school teaches them and provide them with some facts instead of fricking facebook. Kids can and will think when challenged. The problem is everyone is taught to feel good and take a fake baby home to teach them about having a child as a teenagers and we see how that is working!
Agree, although I'm worse than the 34 yr old cause my daughter is 17 months and I'm well over 34....Not crying about the cost, it will be higher, it could be crazy higher by then but it is what it is. Totally agree with your outlook. The one thing we talk about is making her self-sufficient and thinking for herself. I cannot believe the crap I hear about school these days.
The cost of college aside, rising every year no matter what....anyone take calls from their university asking for Money? That blows my mind. I have friends with big cash and no kids and they must spend it so they give to their school, fine, personal choice. But when a Billion Dollar Corporation like many of todays schools are-------------call you at dinner asking for money, that is laughable. If GM called me and asked how I like my car and do I want to make a donation to their Whatever-Fund, would I do it? Proctor and Gamble? BMW? Dow Chemical? Think about it. Northwesternn University, right her in Chicago, not paying taxes into perpetuity due to state legislation, calls people for donations. Gotta love it.
Victimized? This is bullshit. If you borrow money make sure read the fine print and make sure your ass is covered.
Look at it this way, do what the Financial system dictates. Get your loan on, take courses in buiss, and finance, find a partner after graduation, buy bad loans, go collect those that look good for collectin, resell the rest of the "pakage" of bad loans you had originally purchased! I recommend some auto electrical(boost the dead beats car, it's legal!), some aeronautical flight training(boost the Doctors Plane- It's legal), become familiar with how to investigate corporate shells(where assets are hidden, take 'em- it legal!) a little self defense(they won't alwys stand by while you take their transportatin).
There are so many things that are feeding the student loan beast. Super easy government guaranteed loans, the myth that college is the right thing for everyone and you will never amount to anything if you don’t have a degree, the myth that education is always a good investment regardless of the price, the myth that you can’t get educated without going to college, the myth that you can’t be a good worker without a degree, the idea that it is a parental responsibility to provide a college education for your children and the scorn you will receive from peers or your own kids if you decide not to pay for it, etc. we have a long road to travel to fix this.
One of my friends graduated with $60K in student loans and did not even realize they were loans until she got her first bill! Obviously she is to blame for not knowing this, but I can imagine the scenario that leads to something like this: student applies to college A and fills out a FAFSA. Student’s EFC is $5000/year, cost is $25,000/year. Admissions “counselor” presents student with their Financial “Aid” package that covers the $20K/year gap with a combination of small grants and large loans and tells student to sign on the dotted line. Student gladly accepts this “aid” and signs, and figures the process would have been a more cumbersome and scrutinized if they were actually borrowing so much money with no discussion of repayment, terms, etc.
Everyone continues to go about their merry business until the game is over.
p.s. said friend above is now educating the children of our country
It allways is the money.PERIOD. The loans cannot be forgiven, the loans can be securitized. Period.
There will allways be those whom will take advantage, of this, everything flows from there.
It allways is the money.PERIOD. The loans cannot be forgiven, the loans can be securitized. Period.
There will allways be those whom will take advantage, of this, everything flows from there.
Actually perhaps she ought to run for Congress, or the Senate....
Yeah, the "they"got me good. Got a degree as a physical education specialist, in CA, by law all schools need them. Graduated top of my class and was hired by the head of the dept, then fired by her, while she cried. Just bad timing on my part, too new.
No worries as I bartended while in school, nope,no jobs, at all. So I grew medical cannabis, no prob. Now back to real work, finally after a few years of hell. Made a few bucks on the run on silver to live on.
Most of my buddies didn't make those rapid adjustments and are on the verge. When they go, you'll know it.
This is my first time posting to something like this. Because I'm in the situation where I'm taking out loans to pay for school.
I'll start with how I grew up and how it put me in this situation today:
My mother dropped out of High School to take care of her mother. Sometime after that I was born, I grew up in a trailer, moved up all over the place, had houses, had apartments. My real father ended up being a criminal, and my mother was a single mom for the most part until she met my step father.
I was a smart kid, brilliant in english and science. But I had always strived to be an artist, because it was what I was always passionate about. Though, my mother was unable to save for my college. She was too busy working her ass off to take care of me and my brother and sometimes had to work two jobs.
By the time I got to High School, no one had informed me just how important SAT's were to your education. But the way my parents had seen it, "Why should we have to pay for a test that decides if my child is eligible for college or not?" I guess I could see where they were coming from, it's only the very start of college expenses.
So I graduated High School with a 3.8 GPA (I slacked some towards the end). I didn't know what I wanted to do, or where I wanted to go, so I just sort of floated around, living in limbo at my parents place. It wasn't until around last year that I had officially decided that I wanted to be a CharacterDesigner/Computer Animator. Now I currently attend the Academy of Art University (as it was cheaper then Full Sail and AI) paying about $720 per credit hour. Which is about 3 credits a class. I need about 120 something credits to graduate. So you see when I graduate, I'm going to be in a ton of debt.
But what other choice do I have? I never took my SAT's and I would be unable to attend a non-profit accredited college. I wouldn't be able to take the easy way out and do one of those programs, simply because they are NOT accredited, and they only offer certificates that don't mean shit in the real world. After all, it's dictated now by society that in order to obtain most careers that you have to have a degree in order to even hope to get a job in the field you want.
Looking back at how I got into this situation has several factors that play into it:
Not everyone shares the same situation. But this is just one of many.
At the present moment, all I can do is study hard and hope for the best. I make great grades, do well in my classes... but I'm always open to an alternative solution. After all, who wants to be in the worst debt of their life? I don't... but again, what other choice is out there besides working a shitty minimum wage job for the rest of my life?
If there was a way to fight against the for-profit schools (even my own) I would join. I see absolutely no reason why courses have to be this much, even considering that I take online courses only because I moved out of my parents years ago and live on my own.
I took the SAT after dropping out at 17 to join the Army. I had an Army GED, I went to University at 23, 6 years after I dropped out. Take the SAT. If you are not smart enough to study a little and take the SAT or ACT, then you should not be in school.
Don't borrow money for a nothing degree in nothing.
The trap is believing that only debt can create opportunities. That mindset is a global pandemic. We have to stop putting faith in the inumerable institutions out there fighting for wealth we haven't earned yet!
Do what you can now to create and save some wealth. Invest that wealth in yourself. Repeat the process. Prepare for rough times. Plan to retire happily. Control your destiny or someone else will.
I couldn't agree more. Which is why I'm actually looking to step out before I dig the hole deeper. Wish me luck.
I couldn't agree more. Which is why I'm actually looking to step out before I dig the hole deeper. Wish me luck.
Keeping the work force of America educated and skilled was a good idea, but like most everything else in America since 65 the great society was hi-jacked by globalist- socialist. Lucky for the socialist they had a billion or so peasants in china to give them time to dream. Time up!
<sarc on> It would be nice to see the multitude of liberal professors take a pay cut and make school affordable. Oh well at least you gained all their useful knowledge. <sarc off>
None of this money is real and most of it simply will not be paid back. No matter what.
Deal with that fact. Sooner or later.
The kids these days know about feudalism and likely see this loan debt as so much of master's bluster. They laugh at these large numbers whether they ought to or not. And if you've got a laughing and arrogant slave, well, good luck trying to keep him/her on the farm. They'll just move to Europe or Latin America if it gets too bad. Everybody wants to practice their Spanish.
<<Over 90 percent of those going to for-profit colleges borrow! This is like the 100 percent financing brought on by the toxic mortgages. It is actually worse because some will actually use a credit card to finance that last 5 or 10 percent making it a truly nothing down move. The amount of debt is sizeable. For those getting a 4-year degree at a for-profit the average cumulative debt is $27,510. Assume this person is looking to buy a $100,000 home. Their ability to borrow is already impaired unlike previous generations of graduates who came out with either no debt or very little debt.
In spite of the costs, just like the housing bubble, as long as easy accessible debt is available more and more people will enroll if they perceive some added benefit. >>
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/twin-bubbles-housing-higher-education...
Another reason why RE will continue dropping (or at least never go up) in most of our lifetimes.
Here's the deal ! If the students can pass a simple literacy test....forgive their loans ! That should shut 'em up....but, I can hear the wailing and whining and honkie epithets already ! Monedas 2011 Don't bull shit a master bull shitter, Plebe !
i'm getting short university's when tution hits 500k a yr......rule of greater fools can only last so long....xoxoxo
The article is wrong. Child Support cannot be discharged in bankruptcy either. Another permanent part of the debt slavery system.
And for those boo-birds who think CS is a good idea, it's not Biblical and in fact is against the family and God. Because the Federal Government reimburses the States 50 cents on the dollar for every dollar "processed" the States have every incentive to:
1) Maximize the hell of the awards
2) Stretch them out as long as possible with phony "Arrears" that extend the payments decades past when your kid turned 18 (or 21 in Mass).
So you were a real ass to your wife and kids, spouting biblical junk as to how they are all supposed to submit to you, the family dictator.
I can see why you are unhappy with the child support system. I am happy with it because i dont want to have to support your kids. That is your job, bible man.
Actually my kids are in private Catholic schools I pay for.
Truth is a bitch isn't it?
food for thought:
First thing that we need to do is rethink "EDUCATION" all together. Our paradigm is busted... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
I'm thrilled Americans are starting to "rise up". But when are the real radicals gonna show up???
http://mises.org/daily/5761/What-Radicalism
“The protesters of the "occupy" movement imagine themselves to be in the spirit of history's great radicals — speaking truth to power and all that. As many have said, the movement seems blind to the real source of power in society, else they would be protesting government bureaucracies and the Federal Reserve.
Actually, however, it is even worse than that. The protest movement is not just blind to the actual driving force behind impoverishment and injustice. The main ethos of the movement is actively supportive of government and the powerful interests that back the status quo, so much so that this movement doesn't even deserve the name radical.”
Government acts on behalf of itself and the interest groups it represents. Government is not omniscient and is, actually, the dumbest institution in society because it does nothing but take by force and reward its friends.
So get in there and provide them with facts. Give them something else to stir up the hive of bees. Better do it now before they start smoking them out.
So get in there and provide them with facts. Give them something else to stir up the hive of bees. Better do it now before they start smoking them out.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
When ur debt is payable you are not free.
When your debt level is ridiculous and you have
nothing they can take, then you are truly free.
Get a thousand bucks and a plane ticket. Leave the country on a tourist visa. You can teach english anywhere. Once you learn the language doors will open for you as an expat. Be ready to take advantage of the opportunity offered. It will come.
And have a lot of fun with a lot of chics along the way. There is still an american cachet. You are a hot cimmodity, just not in your own country.
Get a trade..get paid to learn.
Yesterday, a heating specialist fixing my steam boiler lamented that there were so many competitors, especially ones that do only work that does not require a plumbers or specialists license that it is hard to survive.
So please enlighten us, what trade do you suggest? Surely not the building trade? The drug trade? Repoman?
The only sure job for the future to me seems to be "prison guard" and little training is required.
Go for the prison guard gig, and make sure to bring weed in everyday to sell to your clients.
I still remember when school or highschool started, when we entered the class we found all new books on the desk with a flower on top and all of that was free
did my college free also got a degree in electronics
and that under a communist regime that priced education far more then those parasites that rule this country of the free and the brave lol
damn looks like is the country of the FEE and the BLIND
this is not ment to say communism is better then capitalism but if we discuss education, was far better then then what it is now in US
458
Elizabeth Warren - The Woman Who Knew Too Much: "G.E. doesn't pay any taxes and we are asking college kids to take on even more debt to get an education, and asking seniors to get by on less. These aren't just economic questions. These are moral questions.....http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/7839-elizabeth-warren-the...
IT’S JUST ANOTHER SHAKEDOWN… !!!
University puts a gun to your head: “you need our pass to get a good job… so pay up”. The amount has nothing to do with the actual price of “education” but is totally related to what current teens (coupled with the system) can bear.
If you’re bright enough, the cream of the crop and otherwise fully qualified for University, maybe you should be bright enough not to go… (and still kick ass).
A spanking new supply of soldiers is being prepared for Iran war.
"these loans must be repaid"
Incorrect--there always the SMS method.
SMS stands for Sallie Mae Suicide. Search google and you will find suicides, the final means to escape loans, in fact the only means left, for some.
Even if you turn age 80 there is no escape, the amount due, including collection fees, and fees upon fees if you default will be deducted from Social Security, which will still exist in years to come, but undoubtedly will decrease in purchasing power as the years go by. As it stands today, for an elder (by the way my loan payments end when I will be 86) in default, there may be no options at all.
Indeed, a student must choose her career path wisely and some will say this is the problem.
Yet here I sit, a highly qualified Occupational Health RN, (COHC) Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist, able to perform spirometry, Workers' Compensation claim case management, you name it, and yet I am unemployed. Indeed the $30k that I spent for years returned plenty on my college investment since my graduation in 2005. I chose my career specifically because the degree was saleable. Jobs were plentiful after gradutation, I became more and more skilled and then...oops, what happened to industry? What happend to my job? What happened to nursing?
My college in 2004/5 created about 26 RN's a year, today they create over a hundred. Wages are falling for jobs available due to the flood of "become a nurse, jobs are plentiful," propaganda; working conditions are worsening (over half of my graduating class that I remain in touch with heve left the career, all due to horrid working conditions). (Note: Try working 4pm to 4am for three days then having a day off, then working 4pm to 4am. It's not a mere inconvenience, for me it was a whopping increase from a blood pressure of 130/78 to 210/110--a death sentence, I managed to escape to specialty nursing, but my co-graduates didn't.
I went from full-time benefitted, to contract in 2008, then to contract with a 20% pay/benefits reduction in 2009; then my contract comany "got sold" to another company who promptly cut all benefits to zero. (Interesting that they were the same people, at the same address, with a new name). Note: Any pay cut over 20% in most states allow an employee to quit and collect unemployment. If under 20% and the employee quits--no unemployment benefits.
In my area industry has been hit so bad I have a zero chance to find a job in my field, and little chance to re-enter in a different form of nursing due to the glut. For each of the past three months I have found ideal jobs that I would be willing to relocate (and pay on a distant apartment plus my house, since I can't sell my house) BUT one problem: In each case, each job for which my qualifications are perfect has been reduced from a full-time 40 hour/week job, to a part-time job. I cannot afford a distant apartment for a 16 hour job.
So the number "99" (if indeed it lasts that long) has taken new meaning to me.
The "choice" of spending money on shelter or foood for an elder (and there will be many, I fear) has already been made. Payments on defaulted loans will be deducted from Social Security. If that is an elder's only means of income, I predict that the SMS method may become somewhat popular.
The changes made in the bankruptcy laws are obscene, in my opinion, they are simply another machination of the monetary elite intent and succeeding in turning into 1/2% of our country's population into Lords, and 90% into serfs.
Of course, almost all, or all, of these student loans are SECURITIZED !!!
And we all should know what that means by this time: securitization is the ultimate cost driver -- in student loans, mortage loans of every conceivable type, auto loans, credit card receivables, and thousands of other categories -- not least of which one would include health insurance and other types of insurance (can you spell ILS, insurance-linked securities??????).
The neverending debt peddling scam of the Transnational Capitalist Class, or the Global Bankster Cartel (which includes those oil guys).
They own and control the global virus: securitizations/credit derivatives (i.e., securitized debt).
They own the banks, insurance companies, clearinghouses and exchanges.
They own the means to create liquidity and the means to control credit (try for a global credit check through their Regulatory DataCorp's G.R.I.D. -- Global Regulatory Information Database).
'Nuff said.....
The founder of paypal.com wants to add this:
Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet. It’s Higher Education.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education/
How about a discussion from ZH’ers on alternate non college career paths?
I listened to an Air Handling company exec say they hired Certified Welders from a “Career Enhancement” high school at $36.00 over minimum wage. Career Enhancement used to be called Vocational school. He said there was need for 1000 certified welders.
On a different note, I tell the story often of my next door neighbor best friend. I went off the Engineering school thinking I was going to become rich and he was heading for the poor house.
We lived on a lake and loved racing hydroplanes. He went to work for Chris Craft after high school.
Chris Craft got into financial trouble and began paying him in stock. Along came Sea Ray and bought out Chris Craft. He is now a multi millionaire and I’m still working.
I knew some medical doctors that for some reason wanted to be my friends. They made good money to pay off their huge loans not because they worked hard or were any good in their profession, but played the system well.
Their mostly female and bitchy employees would give patients
the "treatment" that could be best billed to the insurance
company and: next please! With more than half the week off,
those doctors were engaged in numerous activities such as golfing where they could socialize a bit and show off, the
latter being their main means of trying to socialize.
Consumerism in high-priced goods without much style,
intellectually exhausted by the time they had finished their degrees, failed relationships and serial offenders in mistreating people close to them and trying to live adaptive
superficial lives without much effort but feeling elevated
above the masses.
Sorry creatures. They could never be plumbers, leaks at every joint.
why does everyone act like these loans are for an education.....these kids are just going on a 4 year vacation with borrowed money because they know they cant get a job so 'lets just kill 4 years going to school'.....it didnt work in the old days because you could only borrow enough for tuition. now you can borrow $80k and live a pretty upscale life for 4 years.
about 80% of the laid off tech/it pros i know have done or are doing this right now....and man are they going to sh%t when the bill is due..........
If the Occupy Lebensraum crowd is an example of a publicly financed education....end it all and subscribe them with the most qualified Professors on the Internet for pennies on the dollar ! Just like Netflix....you can learn when you yearn ! All undergraduates to the Internet....if they cut the mustard, send them to advanced training ! We have way too much brick and mortar....convert them into "for profit" prisons for violent offenders ! Monedas 2011 There is a brick and mortar bubble in higher education....go short !
Brick 'n' Mortar schools are environmentally unfriendly ! They're a waste of gasoline and other resources....like time ! Go green....go internet ! Keep the brats at home ! Monedas 2011 Robert Reich sucks !
Why is the decimal formatting on some of those graphics the European format (with commas instead of periods)?
For all its faults, thank god for student loans. Otherwise, this kid [me] who grew up in a poor family of 9 would never been able to attend higher education. I pay more incremental income taxes each year because of my increased income than my total lifetime student loans. When your income can grow by a factor of 25 by attending higher education, and when the the government can increase its income tax collection from one person by more than $1 million over their lifetime, then of course college loans have to be available.
You should NOT get into debt to pay for college unless you KNOW you can pay ioff that debt in a short period of time after graduation. Otherwise, debt you incur is not worth the (inescapable) cost.
Be honest in self-assesment - should you even go to college? If you barely got through High School, look elsewhere. If you DO plan on going to college do as well as possible in High Schoiol.
If you are not a trust fund baby and need to be gainfully employed on graduation, look at employment stats for your dsdegree from the college you attend. Make sure your degree leads to a job.
If studying an esoteric field with limited job prospects - teaching, research - you had better be able to afford get advanced degrees, going to the best schools for your field and be one of the best in your field. If not - do something else. There are plenty of adjunct professors barely gettting by along woth unemployed doctorates in (name the field).
If not getting a degree with direct employment value (engineering - and be careful of WHAT kind, medicine, etc) do so at your own risk. You may be 'employable' with a liberal arts degree from Princeton (thanks to family or friends connections) but without connections and going to a run of the mill college you're wasting time and money getting a general degreee if you NEED to get a job when you graduate.
Knoweldge for knowledge's sakeis fine but it's not worth a lifetime of debt. You can self-educate for free.
At least the Texans have figured out one way to get some of their tax money back from Uncle Sam.
Just recently, the U.S. government considered the possibility of removing subsidized students loans as a means of aid. The reasoning behind the considered removal related to a national debt reduction action plan. Instead, the government raised the national debt ceiling. Losers in this compromise though were graduate students and professional learners. The deal made by the government will no longer allow graduate students to receive subsidized loans. This change will cost graduate students millions in estimated interest costs on borrowed cash advance over the next decade.